SPORTS : Grooming for glory needs guidance

Incentives for Medal winners must!

38th National Games in Uttarakhand from 28 January to 14 February 2025

By Jaswant Claudius
(Senior Sports Writer/Commentator)

Awareness towards sports in our country has created a connection of the common people with sports. A question is often asked or we discuss among ourselves that why the players of a country with a population of 142 crores could win only 6 medals in the Summer Olympic Games 2024 Paris? There is no answer to the prestige of the Olympic Games among any international level event. In today’s situation, the sports strength of any country is tested only and only on the basis of the medals won by its participants in the Summer Olympic Games. India won six medals in London 2012, two in Rio de Janeiro 2016, seven in Tokyo 2020 and six in Paris 2024. By the way, India has won at least one medal in all the Olympic Games of the 21st century, from that point of view we can say that the role of our politicians, sports administrators and the efforts of the participants have been successful to some extent. To achieve success at the international level in sports, the role of the participant is the most important, so the first thing is that the selection of players from the grassroots level should be done honestly. Secondly, the competitors should regularly participate in district, state and national level competitions with continuous practice. In this direction, the Khelo India program of the Central Government is highly commendable; through this, it takes 5 to 8 years to prepare international level players in India. Under the leadership of the officials of the Indian Olympic Association and the Indian Sports Authority, an atmosphere of sports is being created in India and especially in almost all the 28 major sports included in the Olympic Games, players capable of winning medals at the international level are emerging. Today hardly anyone will accept that there was a time when participants for the Olympic Games were selected on the basis of performance in the national games of India. Today the situation has changed, now the selection basis is the national level competitions of the respective sports federation and Asian Games, Asian Championships of the respective sports, Olympic Games.
The importance of these games was underestimated in the 21st century. After 2001, 2002, these games were held in Guwahati in 2007, Jharkhand in 2011, Kerala in 2015, Gujarat in 2022, Goa in 2023. Now in January-February 2025, the 38th National Games will be held in Uttarakhand. No information has been received yet regarding what efforts are being made in Chhattisgarh to prepare for these games. The new executive of the Chhattisgarh Olympic Association has been formed, in which Chief Minister Vishnu Dev Sai has been elected as the President, Vikram Sisodia as the General Secretary and Sanjay Mishra as the Treasurer. The formation of this new executive is yet to be done. The activities of the Olympic Association of Chhattisgarh had come to a standstill due to the inactivity of former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel in the previous Congress government. In such a situation, sports activities will have to be brought back on track. The Olympic Association, along with the Chhattisgarh government, will have to first find out with all seriousness in which sports our state’s team is eligible to participate in the 38th National Games. Then a systematic training camp will have to be organized for the selected players of those sports. This is necessary because the 39th National Games is likely to be organized in Chhattisgarh. Anyway, in 2012 itself, the Chhattisgarh Olympic Association had presented its claim for organizing the 37th National Games here, but it has not been fruitful yet. Therefore, when we will claim for the 39th Games, it is important that Uttarakhand wins as many medals as possible in the 38th National Games. For this, it is also necessary to announce a policy of incentives for the players winning medals in Uttarakhand games from now on. Medals will be won in the Olympic Games only when they can win medals in the National and then Asian Games. After the formation of Chhattisgarh state, a separate announcement is necessary for the prize/award to be given to the players for winning medals in any national game. Implementing the policy of ‘bring a medal in one hand and get a prize in the other’ will increase the interest of teenagers and youth towards sports.